The insecurity of the security dilemma

This thesis is about one of the basic concepts of International Relations, a highly valued theory that has been used to explain multiple cases in world history: the security dilemma. The originally interstate concept was intended to explain those conflicts where states were involuntarily drawn to conflict. Not only has the security dilemma been applied to interstate conflict as it was originally intended, there is also a sizable literature available on the security dilemma applied to ethnic conflict. But in order to account for ethnic conflict the security dilemma has been stretched and a while authors like Posen, Kaufman, Melander and Roe assert that the conflict in Croatia and the former Yugoslavia was a consequence of the security dilemma. This thesis will illustrate the opposite, showing that the security dilemma neglects and fails to account for essential processes that have contributed to and even caused the ethnic violence in Croatia in 1991. The revisiting of the case study...Show moreThis thesis is about one of the basic concepts of International Relations, a highly valued theory that has been used to explain multiple cases in world history: the security dilemma. The originally interstate concept was intended to explain those conflicts where states were involuntarily drawn to conflict. Not only has the security dilemma been applied to interstate conflict as it was originally intended, there is also a sizable literature available on the security dilemma applied to ethnic conflict. But in order to account for ethnic conflict the security dilemma has been stretched and a while authors like Posen, Kaufman, Melander and Roe assert that the conflict in Croatia and the former Yugoslavia was a consequence of the security dilemma. This thesis will illustrate the opposite, showing that the security dilemma neglects and fails to account for essential processes that have contributed to and even caused the ethnic violence in Croatia in 1991. The revisiting of the case study of the ethnic conflict between the Serbs and Croats in Croatia will serve to lay the foundations for the broader theoretical claim that the security dilemma cannot be successfully applied to intra-state conflict.Show less

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The insecurity of the security dilemma